A Sign from Above

Is it true that we are the co-creators of our lives?  I know that we are.  When we come into alignment with our higher self, set a clear vision that will serve the greater good, and share that vision with our unseen helpers, the Universe conspires to work with us.  Some years ago, each morning as I began my meditation I repeated my vision statement:  “I am a Hay House author.”  I wanted this goal not for personal gain, but because I knew that a Hay House published book would allow me to share the existence of a greater reality with many more readers than a smaller publishing house.  Within two weeks of submitting the manuscript for my book The Priest and the Medium to Hay House in 2008 I had a contract.  Book publishing just doesn’t work like that.  Spirit does.

With my vision fulfilled, I needed a new and even bigger one.  I believe in limitless thinking, so I began regularly repeating the phrase, “I am touching millions with the messages of hope.”  I knew the comfort and hope I had gained from being reunited with my step-daughter, after she passed, through a medium.  I could think of no greater vision than to share that same comfort and hope with millions of others through my writing and speaking.

That audacious vision began manifesting in unexpected ways when Chris Lavelle of North lsland Media approached me about making a movie based on my unexpected transition from U.S. Navy Commander to evidential medium.  The skillfully produced documentary that resulted from Chris’ hard work opened many doors and allowed me to share the messages on a larger scale than before.  I was not yet touching millions with the messages, but sharing them via a film called “Messages of Hope” continues to open minds and hearts. 

Knowing that things unfold perfectly, but not always as quickly as we humans would like, I continued to share my vision with the Universe each morning in meditation … “I am touching millions with the messages of hope …”  I didn’t know how this would happen, so I left the details to my Team above.  With their greater perspective, They would come up with far more clever ways to manifest my vision than I could imagine. 

Fast forward to 2015.  Ty and I are on a six-month speaking tour.  A few weeks ago I gave a workshop out west about making the connection with higher consciousness.  A high-school friend was in the audience, and she later told me that looking around the audience, she noted that everyone sat on the edge of their seats throughout the evening.  The next day I couldn’t help but feel a bit of frustration.  People are hungry for the messages those on the other side have to share with us and the love those messages embody.  My talk had been well attended, but how was I going to reach millions?

My guides must have felt my angst.  The next morning in meditation They told me that I need not worry or strive and that I would not achieve my goals in the normal way.  Then I had the strangest thought.  I imagined my messages on a billboard.  It was a silly idea, seemingly popping into my head from nowhere.  And it certainly fit their prediction:  to have my work on a billboard would not be the normal way for an author and medium to spread her messages.

Ten minutes after completing my meditation, I sat at my computer to check my email.  There I found an email from a man for whom I had conducted a reading nine months earlier.  (For anonymity’s sake, let’s call him “Mr. D.”)  At the end of that session he asked if I could give him another reading in six months.   Because of the depth of his grief over the recent loss of both parents, I agreed to do so.  In the email he thanked me for helping him through one of the darkest periods of his life.  He asked if I could fit him in anytime soon.  He was going through a rough patch as the result of recent news related to his father’s passing.  Was it sheer coincidence that I had a cancellation the next morning?  In hindsight, I see that it was not.

Several hours after agreeing to a session for the next day, Ty and I went out to explore the local area.  We commented to each other about a silly billboard we drove past.  At the mention of the billboard, I recalled the thought given to me earlier about having my work on a billboard.  Suddenly, I remembered one of several big “wows” from Mr. D’s reading six months earlier.  His father in spirit had clearly shown me a large billboard.  “This is an electronic billboard,” I said, “like the ones in Times Square.”  Mr. D. reported that outdoor advertising was one of his father’s businesses, and that they specialized in electronic billboards.

The moment I put the evidence from the reading and the morning’s meditation experience together, I saw the future playing out in my mind’s eye as if it had already happened.  I saw myself giving the reading the next day to Mr. D, who had taken over his father’s business.  I envisioned his father providing clear and compelling evidence that he was still very much with his son, just as he had during the first session.  And I saw my work featured on a billboard afterward … perfectly orchestrated by Mr. D. Senior from the other side, who knew that his son had been planning to email me that morning.

I said nothing to Mr. D. about my premonition when we began our session the next day.  I simply set the intention of hearing from his father with as much clarity as possible.  We were not disappointed.  Only when the session was over did I share what had happened to me in meditation before receiving his request for a second reading.  I shared with Mr. D. why I consider this work so sacred.  I could feel that he had been deeply touched by both sessions, and he listened silently until I finished.  I did not ask for anything.  I simply laid out my audacious vision and shared my trust in Spirit to make dreams come true when they serve the greater good.

“I’m going to put you on a billboard,” he replied.

I didn’t dare to breathe, especially not later when he asked me to send him some ideas for what I would want to put on such a billboard.  And I held my breath again when Mr. D. sent me his graphic artist’s final concept for approval.  Looking at the images, I shook my head in wonder.  In bold letters that would catch the eye of any passerby, the sign posed the perfect message:  “Lost a loved one?  Talk to them … They hear you.”  This is the advice I share with every audience and every sitter who comes to me for a reading.  It is the essence of the messages of hope.

I sent Mr. D. an email telling him I loved the design.  In addition to the attention-getting words, it clearly displayed my two latest books, Messages of Hope and Wolf’s Message.   Readers tell me almost daily how the stories and evidence I wrote about have changed their lives.  The desire to get those messages into the hands of even more who have lost hope after the death of a loved one is my constant companion.  I didn’t dare to ask where the billboard would be or when it might appear.

I have learned to surrender everything to Spirit, so I didn’t give the billboard (too) much thought over the following weekend.  It was Sunday night when my phone tweeted.  I was surprised to see a text from Janis Murphy, my friend and fellow medium.  “We just saw your ad for Messages of Hope on a digital billboard on Route 3 in NJ!” she wrote.  I gasped and blurted aloud, “What?!” I re-read the text, delighted to be learning of this delicious surprise in this way, and dialed Janis.  It was then that I saw even more clearly the hand of Spirit at work.

Janis lives near me in Florida.  What was she doing in New Jersey, I wondered?  I learned that she was there for a class in mediumship with our mentor, Janet Nohavec.  She and Janet were in the car with fellow mediums Joe Shiel and internationally acclaimed British medium Tony Stockwell.   That my mentor and fellow classmate—both of whom are mentioned in Messages of Hope—the book on the billboard, were the first to see the sign was a God-wink of the highest order.  I was delighted to be able to share with Janis and the other mediums in the car the beautiful way the billboard gift had come about.

I immediately emailed Mr. D. to thank him.  I expressed my gratitude that he had chosen a major commuter route near the Lincoln tunnel leading into New York City.  I silently wondered how many people would pass by the sign each day.  Perhaps not millions, but easily hundreds of thousands.  My dream was coming true, and all I had done was to serve a fellow human being in need.

Were this the end of the story, I would be grateful beyond words.  But it’s not.  The next morning I emailed Mr. D. to ask him exactly where the sign was in hopes that I could find someone living nearby to send me a photograph of it.  He replied, “Don’t worry, we’ll get you photos.”  And then he brought me to tears with an unexpected email minutes later.  “If we are going to get the word out,” he wrote, “we need to get the word out.”  He invited me to open the attachment, an Excel spreadsheet showing the locations of the fourteen billboards where “my” sign is currently running for the next four to six weeks.

One of the pieces of evidence that Mr. D's father shared with me from the other side to show his son that he was still very much with him was that he had been a philanthropist.  I physically felt the care and concern he displayed for his fellow man.  Clearly, his son walks in his father’s shoes.

I was blown away at the thought of sharing the message of the continuity of consciousness on one billboard, but fourteen?  Yes.  And each of them is on a major commuter route in and around Philadelphia, Trenton, and New York City, to include I-95 and the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes.  I grew up in that area.  I know how heavy the traffic can be: bumper to bumper, two times a day.  We’re not talking hundreds of thousands.  Now we’re talking millions.

I feel like Cinderella.  Do things like this really happen?  Yes, they do.  They happen when we trust in Goodness and Love.  They happen thanks to the generosity and compassion of caring souls like Mr. D. and his father.  I know from losing our Susan that the death of a loved one is the hardest challenge each of us will face in this lifetime.  But I also know from the gift of spirit communication that has been bestowed upon me that the physical separation is only temporary.   Our loved ones are only as far away as our thoughts, and they are held in our hearts until we see them again.

And now, thanks to the efforts of two wonderful angels—one in Heaven and one on Earth—millions will look up from their highway commute and see a sign … a sign with one very important message of hope:  Talk to them … They hear you.